


Away Mission

by ShayneyL



Series: Falling [2]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Episode: s03e03 The Chute, M/M, Pining, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 19:30:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20458277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShayneyL/pseuds/ShayneyL
Summary: Tom and Harry on a shuttle, two feet away from each other, but light years apart.Tagged rape/non-con because of a reference to a past event.





	1. Harry

**Author's Note:**

> Writer's Month 2019, Day 30. The prompt is "pining."

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

Tom was so beautiful when he was piloting. The faint glow from the console displays softened his handsome face, making him look barely Harry's age, not the decade older he actually was. Absorbed in the magic of flying, his true self shone through the superficial mask he wore the rest of the time. 

Harry had been both pleased and dismayed when the captain had assigned him to accompany Tom on a two-week away mission, scanning planetoids for dilithium. Spending so much time alone with Tom was both heaven and hell.

Harry had waited too long. Were he a time traveler, he would go back, and do it differently. He would say "yes" to Tom. 

Not the first time. Tom had invited him to spend the night with him a few minutes after they'd met. Harry wasn't the type for casual sex, and of course, there was Libby. Tom had asked him again from time to time, but the memory of Libby kept Harry from taking him up on it.

It was after he'd seen Libby again...in that alternate timeline...that Harry had started to let go of her. She was not waiting for him, he realized, and he didn't want her to. He had been declared dead, along with the rest of the _Voyager_ crew, and she would and should move on, find love, have a family. 

Harry still hadn't said yes to Tom, but he had started considering it. He liked Tom, he really liked him. Though he didn't know it at the time, he'd started falling in love. He was getting very close to falling into bed with Tom, risking becoming another of the many notches on the Paris bedpost. It was a risk he was willing to take. The next shore leave, he told himself. He'd tell Tom how he felt on their next shore leave.

Unfortunately, that shore leave turned out to be on Akritiri. Harry never had a chance to confess his love. He did get his first sexual experience with a man, but it was in order to get food, water, blankets, protection, and it wasn't with Tom. 

Tom no longer had any attraction toward Harry after Akritiri. Maybe he'd only wanted to "break Harry in," as he'd once put it, and once he found out someone else had done that, he wasn't interested. Or maybe it was that Tom had seen what Harry was really like, in the crucible of that prison. Someone who almost killed his best friend in a fight over a stupid piece of scrap metal. Who had came horrifyingly close to killing Tom to save himself.

He wished he could do it over again. Go back to before that harrowing shore leave, and take Tom into his bed. So his first sexual encounter with another man would be with someone he loved, even if Tom didn't love him back. And he would have that experience, those memories, even if Tom rejected him after Akritiri.


	2. Tom

Tom guided the shuttle through the asteroid field, the remnants of a world that had long ago broken up. He kept his eyes on his console, but he was sharply aware of the man in the co-pilot seat beside him. 

He wanted Harry so badly it hurt. 

He had since he'd first set eyes on him. Such beautiful young man. But Harry had said no. Tom was used to that. Usually his attraction faded, and he moved on.

That didn't happen with Harry. As they got to know each other, what started out as pure lust gradually turned into something deeper, more powerful. Harry was such a genuinely good person — smart, loyal, brave, selfless. Tom couldn't help but love him, even if Harry didn't love him back. 

Not that there wasn't still plenty of lust in his attraction. He did his best to get Harry into his bed. Though Harry kept saying no, Tom kept on trying.

Until Akritiri. Harry, who had steadfastly refused Tom's repeated propositions, holding out for true love...said yes to Zio. In order to save Tom's life. Oh, Harry had said it was to save both of them, but Tom knew better. On his own, Harry would probably have starved rather than give in to Zio. And he wouldn't have needed Zio's help anyway, if he weren't burdened with Tom. 

The first night after they were rescued...Harry was so wounded and vulnerable, Tom knew the answer would be yes if he asked. But he didn't want to ask. Not when Harry was too shellshocked to refuse. And especially not when the reason for that was the sacrifices he'd made to save Tom. 

And as Harry recovered, and become more himself...Tom found he still couldn't ask. He didn't want to hurt Harry, and after what happened on Akritiri, he figured sex with a man was the last thing Harry wanted. 

Besides, it was clear to him that Harry was way too good for the likes of Tom Paris. His head knew that, had always known that. If only he could convince his heart.


End file.
